Real estate students take second place in case competition

A team of undergraduate real estate students from Rutgers Business School won second place in a recent case competition sponsored by the International Council of Shopping Centers.

The five seniors – Max Chen, Amanda Collado, Raj Mitaliya, Aditya Parikh, and John Profaci – worked together on a strategy to answer a challenge designed by the ICSC. The case involved redeveloping a struggling shopping center in Fort Myers, Florida, into a residential apartment community. 

The mock development project required the students to apply their knowledge of the town's financing, zoning, housing, and political issues, forcing the teams to think comprehensively about how they approached the ICSC’s challenge.

The Rutgers students competed against teams from Temple University, Indiana University, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Alabama, Michigan State, Georgia State, the University of Mississippi, California State University, and Canada’s University of Guelph.

Professor David Frame and George Jacobs, a Rutgers Center for Real Estate executive committee member, advised the Rutgers team.

Jacobs, the faculty leader for the team that won and took first place in the University of Miami case competition last year, said: “It’s a pleasure working with a team of students whose effort in this case competition showed their commitment to excellence.”

The Center for Real Estate funded the team's participation as it has for students who have represented Rutgers and the Center in previous competitions.

-Lorri Layton